TSA luggage master keys duplicated with 3D printer

It would normally take a TSA master key to open a luggage lock with ease. It is a master key the lock industry worked with the TSA to create. But one man has done it using a 3D printer. It began with the TSA allowing someone to photograph a master key set which screeners use to inspect our luggage. Someone, reportedly in France, saw the picture online and wrote a program guessing its dimensions. Within hours a man in Montreal with a 3D printer tried it out. And a security breach was born.

The photo has since been removed, but from an air travel perspective, the fact that it was ever out there means the security compromise is complete because someone actually replicated the set of keys, and they work. Once checked in, our luggage can pass through several hands besides TSA agents.

The agency told Fox 5 it is looking into matter.

In the end we are talking about small locks most travelers use to protect their belongings. But they also prevent others from putting things into our luggage, which leads security experts to say this is more than embarrassment but a genuine breach that now has to be addressed.